Episode 40: "Halloween Horror"

It sounded simple enough. Starfleet wanted the USS Gibraltar crew to explore a planet from which a signal eminated. Captain RoBobby McMillan found this a welcome change of pace after last couple of missions. The Gibraltar crew had been through a lot. . . *he* had been through a lot. A calm mission filled with exploring the surface of a planet would put his mind at ease again.

Unfortunately, when McMillan, Ensign Johnson, Ensign Deianirrah and Mr. Rsdworker beamed down, what greeted them wasn't a nice planet, but a scene right out of a horrormovie. The crew had beamed down near what appeared to be a graveyard, surrounded with scary looking trees and bushes, while terrifying sounds were heard from all over the place. Large, creepy bugs crawled over the ground, as strange transparent figures – they had to be holograms... right? - were floating in the air. And to top it all off... it was dark too.

Not the cosiest of places, McMillan figured. He immediately wished that he was back on the Gibraltar again, but he and his crew had a mission to fulfill. So they bravely walked along, though they each had a feeling of being watched...

As it turned out, they were. From behind one of the scary looking trees appeared a lady in white. Her face was as pale as the dress she was wearing. For some reason, she was more scary than anything the environment could offer. It wasn't that white dress persay... it was the empty, almost lifeless look in her eyes. When she spoke, a chill came down McMillan's spine. "You have come."

It didn't take long for another gruesome figure to appear: this time a person was wearing a Starfleet uniform, whose head had turned into a skeleton. "Ah, my Captain." said the lady in white, though she wasn't talking to McMillan. "They have come, just as Slade said they would."

"Slade?" McMillan now echoed. "Slade said we would come?" He didn't waste a single moment, and tapped his commbadge, at which point Johnson pulled out her phaser rifle. This, they all realised, was bad. As McMillan tried to communicate with the Gibraltar – and failed – Ensign Deianirrah was distracted by something, far away...

"You will not get through the interference," the skull-faced Captain warned. "We made sure of that. Now, come. You have to fix our shuttle. You are ours."

At that moment, Ensign Deianirrah returned from where she had gone to... but she wasn't her old self anymore. To the crew's horror, she had turned into a gigantic wolf. McMillan remembered some legends about a creature like this, back on Earth, called 'werewolves'. Deianirrah certainly fit that description...

"Like hell we are." McMillan finally answered, nodding to the remainder of his crew. It was time to run. Which they did, but unfortunately Rsdworker was left behind. He merely stood there, as if under some unknown influence...

McMillan and Johnson knew they had to come up with a plan. They decided that Johnson would look at the shuttlecraft, while at the same time, try to punch through the interference, so that they could hail the Gibraltar. That turned out to be easier than expected, since the white lady and the skull-Captain found McMillan and Johnson quickly enough, and wanted to know all about the Klingons... how the war was progressing.

In their attempt to explain that the Federation and the Klingon empire were no longer at war, McMillan got permission to contact the Gibraltar. When he did, he ordered the crew to be beamed out. Unfortunately, somehow the white lady, the skull-Captain and the werewolf managed to beam on board too, and after breaking through several forcefields, took over the ship bit by bit.

As McMillan and Johnson hurried to the Gibraltar Bridge, they both knew that they couldn't allow the ship to fall into the hands of these... horrific people. There was only one thing to do... activate the self destruct sequence. Just when the computer announced that in a few minutes, the ship would explode, the scary trio entered the Bridge.

But they were too late. The self destruct sequence had almost reached the end.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0.

Captain RoBobby McMillan woke up with a jolt. "Whu, wha, what?" It took him a moment to get his bearings. He was in his Ready Room! He must've fallen asleep here, after coming here to get some work done after yesterday's movienight. 

As he entered the Bridge again, Ensign Debbydo looked at him. "Sir, are you alright?" she asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

McMillan didn't smile. "You could say that. From now on, movie night should no longer show horror movies, is that clear?" With that, he sat down in his chair, feeling comforted by the fact that all that he had just experienced had been nothing more than a dream. A bad one, yes, but a dream nonetheless.

However, on a backwater planet, far far away, an evil laugh was heard, accompanied by the howling of a wolf-like creature. Halloween, they knew on that planet, would return again next year...